PIL seeking to screen Kaala for Judges dismissed

Interestingly, the movie, which the petitioner C Sreedharan, sought for screening was Rajinikanth starrer Kaala. Highlighting the intricate aspects of the movie which revolves around cleaning slums, displacing people and the plight of landless, the petitioner, sought for a direction to the State and Centre to screen the movie for all the judicial officers/judges in the country, right from munsif Courts up to the Supreme ourt to enable them get a clear understanding of the plight and suffering of the landless and houseless.

However, the division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad before whom the plea came up, dismissed the PIL as not maintainable.

“Writ of mandamus cannot be issued merely because a person is praying for. One must establish the right first and then he must seek for the prayer to enforce the said right.

If there is failure of duty by the authorities or inaction, one can approach the court for a mandamus,” the bench said.

“A prerogative writ, like a mandamus cannot be demanded ex debito justiatiae (litigant is entitled merely upon the asking for it), but it can be issued by the court in its discretion for which it must be shown that there is a non-discretionary legal duty upon the authority against whom, the relief is sought for,” the bench noted.

It further added that the person approaching the high court under Article 226 of the Constitution has to prove that he has a legal right to be enforced against the authority, for the failure of performance of a legal or statutory duty by the authority against whom, the relief is sought for.”

It may be noted that the registry on having its reservation over such a plea passing the muster of maintainability had returned it seeking to know as to how the writ petition is maintainable.

But the petitioner merely re-represented the case papers without any endorsement. Incidentally, the petitioner failed to turn up when the plea was taken up for hearing.